


Beautiful Science

by I_llbedammned



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, M/M, Surprises
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-03
Updated: 2014-03-03
Packaged: 2018-01-14 11:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1264129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/I_llbedammned/pseuds/I_llbedammned
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Leo Fitz gets called in to work with the one and only Bruce Banner to try and help the Earth's armies get a jump ahead on the Chitauri threat.  Two very wonderful scientific minds working together leads a bond neither of them expected to form.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beautiful Science

Leo Fitz swore his heart almost stopped when he got his assignment.

"Wait, Doctor Banner? THE Doctor Banner? The same Doctor Banner that helped at the battle of New York?" He asked, his mouth agape.

"The very same." Phil Coulson

Jemma's face lit up, "Oh that's fantastic! This will be such a great learning opportunity! When do we start?"

Coulson shook his head, "Tomorrow. Only there's no we, just Fitz was requested."

Her face fell a bit, "So he's going to go there alone?"

Coulson met her gaze evenly, "That's the word from up on high, from Director Fury himself."

Fitz looked at her seriously, seeing a slight look of panic on her face, "I'll be fine. Really."

"But what if he turns into, you know, - The monster." Simmons gave an uneasy laugh.

"Doctor Banner is a respected professional among S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. He will not cause any problems," the corners of Phil's mouth twitched into a slight smile, "That is as long as Fitz can keep from doing anything to anger him."

"Oh no sir! Wouldn't dream of it!" Fitz answered quickly.

"See you at 0600, then." Coulson said, leaving the room through the sliding door.

The rest of the night had been spent with Fitz barely sleeping. He would try but every time he would feel the need to get up from his bed and pace around his room. This was the man who, aside from being the most terrifying green monster he had ever seen news photos of, was the man who he studied about in his classes. Even if he didn't manage to do something infuriating he still would have to be in the same room being treated as an equal by a man who was light-years ahead of his own research. It made his heart race just thinking about it.  
He of course was able to pull things together in the end. When he talked to rest of the team he did his best to seem like he wasn't one panic attack from losing everything.

"Just relax. I've worked with him before; he's actually a very reasonable man." Coulson said.

The younger agent took in a deep breath and stepped off the plane to go to New York.

When he got to the lab there was no one else there that he could see. It was a very high tech set-up, the computer were all top of the line and there was testing equipment that he could only dream about being able to use. 

The lab was very silent, almost to the point where it was eerie. After living for so long on the place it was kind of odd to be stuck there without anybody to talk to and not even the roar of the engines to keep him company. He didn't realize just how acclimated he had gotten to that life style. He took a seat uneasily on a stool near a counter top.

"You must be Leo Fitz, right?" sounded a voice to his left and he turned around on the stool.

There was the man that he had spent entire classes learning about, dressed in a grey button down shirt and a pair of black slacks. Fitz jumped to his feet.

"Yes! Yes, that's me! Uh, Hello. Doctor Banner. Mr. Banner, uh." He realized he was fumbling over his words but they were already out of his mouth so he couldn't change that now.

"Doctor Banner or Bruce is fine with me." the other man said with a slight smile.

Fitz gave a smile, "Alright then Bruce." There was a small bit of silence and Fitz rushed to fill it, "It is an honor to meet you by the way. You are much shorter in person than I was lead to believe you would be. Not that being short is a bad thing."

The other man looked at him with scrutiny, his body slightly tense, but responded evenly "You can calm down. If we're going to be working together I don't want you thinking I'm going to punch you if you say something wrong. I know I have a.... reputation."

"No! No, no!" Fitz answered, feeling embarrassed and knowing he was sounding like a twit. "It's just you're Bruce Banner. THE Bruce Banner. Your work on particle physics was legendary. I must have read your paper on the effects of gamma radiation on organic creatures and the consequences ten times for various classes. You broke the mold with your experiments-"

Bruce's body language relaxed a good deal and he gave Fitz a smirk, "Better watch yourself. I just might start getting an ego at this rate."

"But sir, uh I mean Bruce, why me? There are so many other scientists that S.H.I.E.L.D. has working for them, why choose me to work with?"

Bruce's expression grew more serious. "I heard about your research with the Chitauri virus that was infecting people. I know you were the one who came up with the cure and risked your own safety to help save people. I needed someone with that type of strength of character and that knowledge of the Chitauri to help me."

Fitz's attention was grabbed, "What do you need that kind of help for?"

"We found one, a Chitauri body, intact. Most of them, as you know, collapsed to pieces when their connection to the hive was shattered, but this one seems to be mostly in one piece. We have been recruited to be one of the first ones to help monitor and study the body to see what we can learn. I figured if you were the type of person who was willing to risk getting infected to help out a teammate; you were the type of person who would risk themselves once again to benefit humanity."

The younger man swallowed, hard, "No pressure or anything."

Bruce smiled, "You learn how to deal with pressure in our line of work."

So the two of them set off. They weren't in the same room as the body, not until the entire thing had been disinfected and quadruple checked for any known viruses was anyone at S.H.I.E.L.D. willing to let them anywhere near it. But they were given testing equipment to monitor every radiation level, they were given cameras that were robotically stuck down its throat to explore its innards, they were given all the funding they could need to do whatever needed to be done.

To most he was sure it would have been boring, but this was the type of thing that made Fitz feel truly alive. This was science on the cutting edge, working with the top minds of any field and the technology that had just barely been invented. The lab was enough that he could just imagine the ecstatic look on Jemma's face when he would tell her about it. 

The lab wasn't all though, there was Doctor Banner himself. The man was so incredibly down to earth and relaxed at all times, though there were moments where Fitz could see the tension building in his body as they would look at Chitauri armor and check it for radiation. It was like no matter what he could always keep a cool head, like the stories of that green monster that lived inside of him were most exaggerated even though Fitz had seen photographs of it so he knew it wasn't just a tale. Plus the man's mind was brilliant, which drew Fitz closer to him. He thought of theories behind new data nearly instantaneously working through them, bouncing ideas off of Fitz and actually listening to his logic. 

It was a beautiful science that they were working together and in spite of himself Fitz felt a warm fondness in his heart growing as they spent their days together. It just kept building and he noticed at times he would be watching Bruce instead of the data, just out of the corner of his eye. One day he acted upon it, his body acting almost separately from his mind. His mind was telling him how bad of an idea it was but his body and his heart was already moving in quickly as Bruce stood by him going on about Chitauri armor carrying an intense venom that was radiation based and the possible ramifications to those that fought them. Fitz's lips met Bruce's suddenly and there was a brief moment of pleasure followed by fear.

Fitz froze where he was, his body tensing up as the full ramifications of what he had just done caught up with him. This was bad. This was really bad. He just kissed a man, in public, which was going to be fun to try and explain to his parents. Worse the man who he kissed was known for having a green monster inside of him that would surface when he was angry and would tear apart anything in his path. His own thin, pale body would be torn apart like tissue paper by those green, muscled hands. He was going to meet his maker, that's all there was to it. If he did survive he was going to lose his job over this, there had to be S.H.I.E.L.D. protocol over kissing those who worked within the agency.

He opened his eyes and pulled backwards, and to his amazement saw Bruce giving him a bemused smile. He took a deep breath and steadied his shaking hands.  
"I am so sorry. I don't know what I was thinking. I just-"

"It's alright. I understand spur of the moment decisions happen."

"Please don't be angry. I'll ask to be transferred; you'll never see me again-"

Bruce shook his head, "I'm not angry. This just" he paused searching for the words, "complicates things a little." He shrugged, "Not necessarily in a bad way, just makes things more complicated."

"So you're not going kill me?"

Bruce shook his head, "Not today." He extended out a hand out to steady Fitz's own fear induced shakes, "Listen it's been a long day for both of us. You get some sleep and we'll continue research in the morning. Everything else will be figured out in time." He gave a wry smile, "What's the worst that can happen after all!"

"Got it!" Fitz answered breathlessly, knowing all the color had to be drained out of his face. Bruce Banner left the room and the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent practically collapsed onto a stool. He was alive. He was alive and Bruce was not angry at him. He was so happy he could practically kiss the ground.


End file.
